Author

There is another manuscript I have been working on for several years and with luck will have it properly published. In the meantime I have grown closer to my faith and become much more spiuritual. I am very content to spend my mornings volunteering with St Vincent de Paul, the Brevard Association for the Blind, the Shepherd Center and the local parish thrift shop. In the afternoons I share my time with gardening, reading and writing of things spiritual. I am particularly interested in promoting more secular services within the Catholic Church centered around Education, Healthcare and Finance. We will see whether my twilight years will bear any fruit.

A Day in the Life of a Pilot - Published in 2014Almost from the time To be a Pilot was published I began to receive calls from Tate Publishers, a Christian publisher. They explained that for a reduced fee they could publish and market my book. I resisted for over a year, but was eventually persuaded. I was given the opportunity to revise the book and to have the new one edited. I do not like the cover, for it does not reflect my flying career and no attempt has been made to market the publication.

To Be a Pilot - Published in 2011When I brought my family to America in the Spring of 1987 it was to partner with Ray Kramer in a General Aviation enterprise at Opa Locka airport, Miami. I did not realize the shortcomings of my partner and it was the worst of economic times for General Aviation. The business soon went bust and left me with few alternatives. Soon I found myself working as an occasional corporate pilot, while flying for a small airline out of Miami. None of the airline jobs that I was offered, were near my home base and the salaries were far from adequate to support my family. My brother then offered me an opportunity to join his company and learn the Property management business. The last two weeks of my emploment in Miami allowed me time to write notes on my aviation experiences, some of which were unusual. In the mid nineties my Mother asked me to write her memoires, with which she was very satisfied. It was a very limited edition of twenty five copies, solely for her extended family. She then prevailed upon me to write a book about my flying days, but I was unable to complete it before she died. The book was derived fom my notes as a collection of short stories and published by Publish America. It is possible to be successful as a self publisher, but rare. In my case I was just not up to the constant marketing and the low returns.

Dallas Lunch Break - Published in 1992This was a joint project with Frank Zimmerman, a multi garage manager, with whom I shared many a lunch in downtown Dallas. Frank was intrigued with how we may be able to eat our way to writing a book for next to nothing> It became a comendium of sixty six eating places all within twenty-nine blocks of one another in the Dallas business district. Part of the Preface says it all: "Lunchbreak is this little booklet designed to expand your timeframe, satisfy your appetite and buy the most meal for your money. It is with these thoughts in mind that Randal amd Frank set forth in the Central Busines district armed only with large appetites and slender wallets. Ratings ranged by "spoons." The maximum of five spoons went to Cafe Verde on the ground floor of the Southland Center Hotel and The Aristocrat Bar and grill in the hotel of the same name. Our maximum price was $5.95 per meal and we were seldom disappointed. Note to would be Cafe owners - your best and maybe your last investment will be in eating at your future competition.

Caribbean Flite Guide - Published in 1972

Two hundred and forty four pages of joy and hard work. I was a new, young Flight Engineer with British West Indian Airways (B.W.I.A.) .Having spent my first few months in the airline qualifying on the Boeing 727(100), I was returning to Trinidad on my check ride. During the flight the chief Instructor came up to the flight deck and told me that on the following day I had to report to the Chief Pilot! Nervously I responded to be informed that i was no longer assigned to the 727 fleet, but was to depart for training in Australia on our new Boeing 707(100). After another few months of ground and air training I was on the Fleet Captain check ride out of Antigua for New York. Just as we were approaching Top of Climb (TOC), the fleet Captain turned round and said. "We have an engine failure and we have to to divert to Ramey - how much fuel do we have to dump!" Grabbing the Jeppesen - the manual with all the route and runway charts, I began to look earnestly for Ramey. "Where the hell is Ramey? I felt that we had flown halfway to New York before I found the Ramey Air Force base in Puerto Rico. Realizing how little I knew about the Caribbean I decided to change that fact. Four years later and with the help of Bob Pooley, an old English friend of mine, the Guide became a reality. For several years it was the authoritive Visyual Flight Rules (VFR) guide for the Caribbean and acted almost like a passport, providing me with entrance into every aviation office between Suriname and Miami. When it started to become outdated, production was moved to Trinidad, where the loose leaf version was produced. I sold over two thousand copies of the guide and kept a database of over three hundred amendment subscribers, mostly from the USA and Canada. It is still available from Amazon, but very outdated.